Principal Mechanical Engineer -Nuclear

Principal Mechanical Engineer
Warrington or Preston| Hybrid Working (3 Days Office / 2 Days Home)
£63,800 – 81,000 + Excellent Benefits
Full-Time | Permanent

Shape the Future of UK Nuclear Engineering

Are you an experienced Principal Mechanical Engineer looking for an opportunity to lead complex engineering projects that make a real difference?
We’re looking for a talented engineer to join a leading organisation delivering innovative solutions across the UK’s nuclear sector. Whether your background is in nuclear, defence, aerospace, oil & gas, power generation, or another highly regulated industry, this is an opportunity to apply your expertise on nationally significant programmes while developing your career in a collaborative and forward-thinking environment.
If you enjoy solving complex engineering challenges, leading technical teams, and influencing project delivery from concept through to completion, we’d love to hear from you.

The Role
As a Principal Mechanical Engineer, you’ll play a key role in maintaining engineering integrity throughout the design lifecycle, ensuring solutions meet technical, regulatory and customer requirements.
Working closely with multidisciplinary teams, you’ll provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, and help deliver high-quality engineering solutions on complex projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee the delivery of mechanical engineering design activities.
• Maintain engineering configuration and design integrity throughout the project lifecycle.
• Produce, review and approve engineering calculations, technical reports, drawings and design documentation.
• Ensure engineering work complies with applicable standards, codes and regulatory requirements.
• Identify, manage and communicate technical and project risks.
• Build strong relationships with customers and key stakeholders.
• Support business growth through excellent technical delivery and customer engagement.
• Promote collaboration across engineering and wider project teams.
• Mentor and support engineers, helping to develop technical capability within the team.

What We’re Looking For
We’re looking for engineers who take ownership, thrive on solving technical challenges, and enjoy leading others.
You’ll ideally have:

• Experience leading engineering teams or technical work packages.
• Strong understanding of engineering design principles and configuration management.
• Knowledge of CAD tools and engineering drawing practices.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• The confidence to challenge, innovate and drive continuous improvement.
• Experience working within regulated engineering environments is advantageous.

Nuclear industry experience is not essential. We welcome applications from engineers with backgrounds in sectors such as defence, aerospace, energy, oil & gas, rail, marine, manufacturing and other complex engineering industries.

Qualifications
Essential

• HNC/HND in Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent experience).

Desirable

• Degree-qualified in Mechanical Engineering.
• Chartered Engineer status (or working towards Chartership).

Security Clearance
The successful candidate must be eligible to obtain Security Check (SC) Clearance.

What’s On Offer?
Alongside a competitive salary, you’ll receive an excellent benefits package including:

• Generous annual leave entitlement
• Hybrid working (3 days office / 2 days home)
• Competitive pension scheme with life assurance
• Private healthcare benefits including Digital GP services and annual health checks
• Professional membership fees paid
• Employee share scheme
• Retail and lifestyle discount portal
• Holiday buy and sell scheme
• Paid volunteering day each year
• Career development, structured training and clear progression opportunities
• Opportunity to work on some of the UK’s most exciting and technically challenging engineering programmes

Why Apply?
This is an opportunity to join a highly respected engineering organisation delivering critical projects that support the UK’s future infrastructure. You’ll work alongside industry experts, tackle technically demanding challenges, and have genuine opportunities to develop your career while making a lasting impact.

Ready for your next challenge?
Apply today or contact us for a confidential discussion to find out more about this exciting opportunity.